Monday, April 21, 2008

Some Meetups are already giving up hope, but there is a way for us to get Ron Paul the nomination, and it is absolutely doable.

In a nutshell: If enough delegations sit out the first and second vote, McCain won't get his required majority, and the national convention will become a brokered one- which means anything goes.

There are two main hurdles to accomplishing this:

1. To be even presented for nomination, Ron must be able to "demonstrate the support" of a majority of the delegates from at least five states.

2. Getting enough state delegations to sit out the first two votes won't be easy but it is totally within the realm of the possible!

What depresses so many delegates is that in order to even be selected as delegates to go to the National Convention, they are required by state party rules to sign a pledge that they will "support" John McCain. That is not the end of the story, however.

The only consequence of that is that a delegate's vote for anyone other than McCain will simply not be counted.

That's all!

There are no legal ramifications for breaking that pledge. There are only possible ethical concerns. These ethical concerns, however, are completely swept aside by the possibility of simply NOT VOTING the first time around.

The RNC's party rules expressly contemplate and acknowledge that State Delegations may choose to sit out a vote. Rule 37c states:

(c) In balloting, if any delegation shall pass when its name is called, then at the conclusion of the roll call all delegations which passed shall be called in the order herein before established. No delegation shall be allowed to change its vote until all delegations which passed shall have been given a second opportunity to vote.

That means (a) it's ok to abstain from voting, and (b) the only consequence is that the passing delegation(s) must be given another chance to vote before any other delegations are released from their pledges.